South African Class 14E1

The South African Class 14E1 of 1994 is a South African electric locomotive from the Spoornet era.

In December 1994 Spoornet took delivery of the last of ten locally manufactured Class 14E1 dual voltage electric mainline locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement. They had been preceded in 1991 by three prototype Class 14E locomotives.^[2]

Manufacturer

The dual voltage 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC Class 14E1 electric locomotive was designed by Consortium 14E, consisting of Siemens, ABB, AEG-Westinghouse, GEC and Alsthom-Atlantique, headed by Siemens. They were built for Spoornet by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, under licence to Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) in Winterthur. Ten locomotives were delivered and placed in service by December 1994, numbered in the range from 14-101 to 14-110.^[3][4]

Builders’ plates

The original order was placed for fifty locomotives. The first locomotives to be delivered were subjected to intensive trial runs on speed-freight trains in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, during which it was found not to be a suitable locomotive for the infrastructure on lines rated at 20 ton per axle. It caused some damage to points when travelling at 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) in the Free State. When the first one to be delivered developed a vibration in the gear box, the order for fifty locomotives was summarily reduced to ten only, given the unsatisfactory trial results to date.^[5]

Characteristics

Class 14E1 spoked wheelset with helical gear

These dual cab locomotives have a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end is designated the number 1 end. The cabs are connected by a passage along the centre of the locomotive.^[2]

Unlike the later dual voltage Classes 19E, 20E and 21E that were equipped to automatically transition between AC and DC mode on the run, the Class 14E1 had to be stopped and then restarted under the different voltage. Along with the earlier Class 14E, these electric locomotives were some of the most powerful at the time. They were equipped with three-phase AC motors (induction motors) made by Siemens and also incorporated Siemens' sophisticated train communication network system.

With the exception of the Class 9E, all previous South African electric locomotives ran on spoked wheels using spur gears. The Swiss-built Class 14E ran on solid wheels using double helical or herringbone gears, while the locally built Class 14E1 was delivered with the traditional spoked wheels, but using helical gears.

Works numbers

On the Class 14E1 the Consortium group’s works numbers are engraved in the top right corner of a large plate depicting a circuit diagram of the locomotive, mounted below the sill and halfway between the bogies on the roof access ladder side of the locomotive. The works numbers do not follow the locomotive unit number sequence.^[6]

Service

By 2006 Class 14E1 locomotives were shedded in Bellville in Cape Town. In freight service they were employed on the route between Cape Town and Beaufort West in the Western Cape. Since they are dual voltage 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC locomotives, they can work on any electrified line country-wide with the exception of the 50 kV AC Sishen Saldanha iron ore line.^[4]

In 1998 a number of Spoornet’s electric locomotives and most of their Class 38-000 electro-diesel locomotives were sold to Maquarie-GETX (General Electric Financing) and leased back to Spoornet for a ten-year period that was to expire in 2008. Of the Class 14E1, numbers 14-101 to 14-106 were also included in this leasing deal.^[4]

Beginning circa 2005, selected Class 14E1 locomotives were employed to haul the Blue Train all the way along the Cape Town-Pretoria route across the 25 kV AC stretch between Beaufort West and Kimberley. By 2012 they often ran country-wide when hauling the Blue Train. Being fast and giving a comfortable ride in an air conditioned cab, the Class 14E1 became popular with drivers.

In July 2012, possibly as a result of popular demand, some of the Class 14E1 locomotives were repainted in a special blue Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) livery to match the Blue Train livery. However, after two incidents shortly thereafter, in 2013 with Class 14E1 no. 14-104 and in 2014 with Class 14E no. 14-001, when the locomotives caught alight and were destroyed while working the Blue Train, the Class was replaced by Class 18E locomotives on Blue Train service.

Liveries illustrated

The following pictures illustrate the difference in the two sides of the Class 14E1 and the liveries that were applied to it.

• 

  No. 14-106 with the Blue Train passing Orkney, North West Province on 13 October 2009

• 

  No. 14-110 in Blue Train livery at Bellville Locomotive Depot, Cape Town, 9 August 2012

See also

• Electric locomotive numbering and classification
• List of South African locomotive classes
• South African Class 14E
• South African locomotive history

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: South African Class 14E1

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